As calls increased for an investigation into what was known when by whom on retired Gen. David Petraeus' extramarital affair, a friend of his said it started in 2011, two months after he became CIA director. Petraeus' wife, Holly, "is not exactly pleased right now," said Steve Boylan, a friend and former spokesman for Petraeus who spoke to him over the weekend. "'Furious' would be an understatement," Boylan told ABC's "Good Morning America." He said Petraeus ended the affair four months ago. The affair came to light when Jill Kelley, 37, who serves as an unpaid social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., went to the FBI about harassing emails from Paula Broadwell, 40, who wrote a biography of Petraeus and has been identified as his mistress. One of Petraeus' former associates, speaking anonymously, said there was no affair between Petraeus and Kelley. Kelley and her husband, Scott, issued a statement saying they had been friends with the Petraeus family for five years and requested privacy. Members of Congress said Sunday they want to know more details about the FBI investigation that revealed the affair. They questioned when the retired general popped up in the FBI inquiry, whether national security was compromised and why they weren't told sooner. "We received no advanced notice. It was like a lightning bolt," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Demonstrating that it won't tolerate errant fire from Syria falling on its territory, Israel fired back Monday, scoring what it called "direct hits" on Syrian mobile artillery units. Several stray mortar shells have fallen in the Israeli-held Golan Heights in recent days, and Israel fired a "warning shot" Sunday in response. But on Monday, Israeli tanks targeted the "source of fire" in Syria after a mortar shell landed in an open area of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967. Israeli officials said they hit a Syrian army vehicle carrying mobile artillery. Israeli officials have begun to question whether all cross-border fire from Syria has been unintentional. Israeli officials have long feared that President Bashar Assad could try to draw Israel into the conflict in his country out of desperation.

The BBC's news chief and her deputy stepped aside Monday in the wake of a botched report that implicated a British politician in sex-abuse claims without proper sourcing. Helen Boaden, the BBC's director of news and current affairs, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, had nothing to do with the "Newsnight" report, the BBC said, but they are stepping aside until after a review is conducted on how the story was allowed to air. On Saturday the BBC's director general, George Entwhistle, was forced to resign because of the story. The crisis at the British broadcasting giant follows allegations that the late Jimmy Savile, a BBC entertainment star, was a serial sex abuser of underage girls.

A man suspected in a dozen rapes on the East Coast since the late 1990s confessed his crimes in hours of telephone interviews from jail with the Washington Post in which he said that his victims were "objects" to him. Aaron Davis said he would go for a walk and spot a woman, and his heart would race and his hands would shake. He would approach her, scare her into submission and rape her. "They were objects. Whoever came down the street, an object. ... It's awful. It's scary. ... I don't know why I couldn't just stop." Thomas, 40, is expected to plead guilty this month for the Halloween abduction of three women in Prince William County, Va., in 2009 and a rape in Loudoun County, Va., in 2001. Thomas said the rapes began in the early 1990s when he was living in a burned-out pet store in Forestville after being kicked out of the house by his father. "I was sitting in the building just doing nothing," Thomas said. But then he got an urge, his heart started to race and he walked outside. "It was like, bam, who cares?" He said he approached a prostitute walking down the street, scared her into a patch of woods and raped her. "I felt like an animal. I didn't care," he said. Thomas faces the possibility of several life terms in prison.

Connecticut police says a man in West Hartford stole a car used to deliver Chinese food -- and then kept delivering orders so he could keep the money. Keith Hinds, 45, was charged Friday with larceny, possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and other drug charges. West Hartford police received a call from a Chinese food delivery driver reporting that his car had been stolen after he left it idling to run into a school. Police say one of the remaining orders in the car was delivered before Hinds was arrested. He was held on $5,000 bond.

The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler.